Chapter 153 : Rose Maid
Rose Maid
After a dozen minutes or so, Chen Zixuan felt he had rested enough. He left the inn and returned to the previously used forging room.
The equipment for the two little white mice had already been completed. Now, he was preparing to craft the [Hymn Class Novice Nun] set for Gu Yanxi.
Unlike the previous two sets he had made, although Gu Yanxi's equipment was also blue rare-grade, the materials were relatively scarce. Therefore, Yuewu had only prepared a single set in advance—just like the [Rose Maid] set Chen Zixuan would soon make for himself. If he made the slightest mistake, there would be no opportunity to try again.
He had to succeed on the first attempt.
Fortunately, Chen Zixuan was already familiar with the forging process for blue rare-grade equipment and could basically guarantee a success rate of 100%.
Even so, he couldn't afford to be careless. Calming his mind, Chen Zixuan took out the materials and design diagrams from his bag and began focusing on the forging.
Compared to fighting monsters, the process of forging equipment was undoubtedly tedious and monotonous. It often took several hours, and players had to maintain their focus the entire time, never allowing their attention to wander from forging.
Time slipped by quietly. After an hour, Chen Zixuan had finally completed all the other equipment—only the last step remained: embedding the Blue Gem into the weapon.
In Legend of Kaloran, when forging equipment of blue rare-grade or higher, the final step always required embedding a gem—something ordinary white-grade equipment simply didn't qualify for.
Chen Zixuan had plenty of Blue Gems, all rewards from previous world-class boss kills. Besides, he also had a good number of Purple Gems, so he wasn't concerned about running out of gems during this forging session.
He set out the last staff, and the silver-haired girl, sweating from head to toe, breathed a sigh of relief. Taking out a round Blue Gem as deep as the sea, she steadily embedded it at the tip of the staff.
The next instant, blue light flared brilliantly!
It seemed as if the final embedded gem had infused the staff with life—light gushed from every part of the weapon, swirling and frolicking, making Chen Zixuan's eyes sting from the brightness.
"System notification: You have successfully forged [Hymn Class Novice Nun's Staff], gaining 20 proficiency points!"
It was done!
Stashing the final staff in his backpack, Chen Zixuan felt a powerful sense of satisfaction welling up inside.
He had truly poured two hundred percent effort and patience into forging this equipment for Gu Yanxi, and the quality was naturally the best. It could be called Chen Zixuan's most satisfying work so far.
It was, after all, just a level 5 set of blue-grade equipment, but counting his own proficiency bonuses, the stats of the [Hymn Class Novice Nun] set could even rival those of the epic-grade [Blood Moon Executioner] set.
At present, in Legend of Kaloran, this equipment could easily be counted among the top three in the world.
Opening his friend list for a glance, Gu Yanxi's profile icon was still gray—she hadn't logged in yet. Nevertheless, Chen Zixuan was in no hurry.
There was still plenty of time today. Taking advantage of his current momentum, he decided to forge his own level 15 [Rose Maid] set all at once.
"Natural Snow Silkworm Silk... Winter Bear Fur... Mithril..."
He set each rare material delicately on the table, forcing down the excitement in his heart. Taking a deep breath, Chen Zixuan carefully studied the equipment blueprints.
Unlike other sets, which generally had five pieces, the "Rose Maid" series contained six pieces. Coupled with Lv. max [Maid Outfit Mastery], each item could provide truly fearsome stat bonuses.
This was, without a doubt, the equipment Chen Zixuan had dreamed of most during this period.
He was not yet in his complete form.
Once he put on this set of maid outfit, he'd instantly transform into a great Demon King!
By then, the Sawtooth Demon King Crocodile in Mutant Jungle would pose no threat to him at all.
Although this was a level 15 epic-grade purple set, after looking over the design diagram, Chen Zixuan was a little surprised.
Compared to level 5 blue equipment, the difficulty of this purple set wasn't much higher. It just required more materials and more steps in the forging, but it wasn't really any harder to make.
With his current experience, he judged that two and a half hours at most—two hours if lucky—would suffice.
The more preparations he made, the less courage he had to proceed. Sometimes, simply charging ahead might deliver the best results.
Feeling a bit more at ease, Chen Zixuan stoked the furnace and added charcoal, starting preparations to forge this level 15 epic equipment set.
Time ticked by second by second, yet Chen Zixuan was oblivious—his gaze was utterly focused, fine sweat beading and trickling down from his forehead.
Soon, an hour passed.
Then two...
Two and a half hours went by, but Chen Zixuan still hadn't stopped moving his hands.
Every step outlined on the blueprints, every pattern that needed to be drawn, every character that had to be engraved, every bit of metal to be inlaid—there wasn't a single mistake.
At this moment, it truly seemed as if Chen Zixuan had entered the late stages of perfectionism, trying to make every step absolutely perfect!
Only at this moment did Chen Zixuan demand perfection.
Forging the base, adding details, embedding the gems... Like a soulless automaton, Chen Zixuan endlessly repeated these operations, so focused that even when System Miss's voice rang at his ear, he barely noticed.
"System notification: You have successfully forged [Rose Maid's Silver Dinner Knife], gaining 85 proficiency points!"
Standing dazed for a moment, he waited for the intense purple light before his eyes to fade. Only then did the silver-haired girl straighten up, her clear-blue eyes misty, and slowly pick up the silver dinner knife from the table.
The nearly perfect curve was like a sliver of the crescent moon. Though the item looked like a utensil, its chilling killing intent was still unmistakable.
Chen Zixuan twisted the blade back and forth, sweeping his gaze over every detail, momentarily mesmerized.
The last piece of the Rose Maid—was it truly finished?
He glanced again at the time. Nearly three hours had passed. If game time didn't sync with real time, Chen Zixuan might have thought he'd only just started forging ten minutes ago.
At that moment, a deep fatigue suddenly rose from within his body. The silver dinner knife fell weakly from his hand, clattering crisply against the stone tabletop.
His vision darkened. Propping herself against the desk with two soft white hands, the silver-haired girl gasped deeply, her face flushed bright red, looking utterly drained—she couldn't muster a bit of strength.
Just now, while fully immersed, Chen Zixuan hadn't even noticed that his stamina bar had hit zero more than ten minutes ago.
The exhaustion that should have arrived early had been forcibly repressed in his subconscious, just so he could complete the last weapon in perfect condition, all in one go.
......